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1 in 10 people in the UK suffer with rosacea - but this skincare range helps

1 in 10 people in the UK suffer with rosacea - but this skincare range helps

Metro30-04-2025

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Bianca from County Durham had pretty much flawless skin throughout her teen years and early twenties. But her first pregnancy at 22 triggered her developing rosacea — a long-term inflammatory skin condition.
What started out as the occasional flare-up of redness and sensitivity progressed into more substantial rashes, peppered with small spots. And unfortunately, this didn't clear up after she'd given birth. GPs suggested various over-the-counter creams, but none of them made any difference — with some even making the symptoms worse.
'Over the next nine years, I went from having regular flare ups, to becoming permanently red, bumpy, and blotchy across my cheeks and nose,' Bianca shares.
'It got to the stage whereby I couldn't even think of leaving the house without a thick base layer of foundation to cover up the redness — and I'd often need to reapply it during the day.'
Desperate for relief, Bianca says she began spending pretty much every spare minute searching online for product suggestions.
Luckily, she stumbled across a woman on Instagram with a very similar story to her own — and she swore by Kalme products. Inspired by this woman's results, Bianca decided to try out a few of the products for herself, and she was instantly impressed.
'Unlike anything else I had tried for my rosacea so far, my skin felt instantly calmer and more comfortable when I applied the Kalme Day Defence Cream,' Bianca explains.
'One time I ran out of it — and didn't re-buy it for a few weeks — and almost immediately my skin started to flare red more regularly, and feel itchy and sensitive. Now, I always make sure I have a supply.'
The Kalme Day Defence Cream is included in this brilliant bundle — alongside the Kalme Night Cream, and Kalme Cleanser. And best of all, Metro readers you can bank an extra £10 off when they apply the code METRO10 at check-out. More Trending
Made with a combination of unique skincare innovations to reduce redness, the hero ingredient of the range has to be a patented caper extract called Derma Sensitive, which has been clinically proven in trials to reduce redness and skincare sensitivity by up to 70%. Meanwhile, Indinyl has a 24-hour moisturising action to combat dryness, and the antioxidant NDGA reduces the underlying inflammation that causes bumpiness and spots. Plus, the moisturiser also provides protection against UV damage.
Unhelpfully, the beginnings of rosacea can look quite a lot like adult acne, dermatologist Dr Eva Melegh explains. 'Catching and treating rosacea in its earlier stages is the most effective way of not letting it intensify and spread — but unfortunately, it's still one of the most misdiagnosed skin conditions.'
As far as Bianca's concerned, spreading awareness is key. With rosacea now a far smaller part of her day-to-day life, she hopes that sharing her experience will help other sufferers feel less alone and helpless. 'I'll always have rosacea, but it doesn't rule my life like it used to,' she adds. 'I now know exactly how to keep the condition under control.'
Consider us sold.
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MORE: Get celebrity-approved skincare for less at this beauty destination – with 87% off cream used by Kate Middleton
MORE: Bulldog Skincare launches new Anytime Daily UV Moisturiser SPF 50 – and it's perfectly timed for summer
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Why Dr Paris uses her bare arms in the fight against Australia's mosquito-borne diseases
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Why Dr Paris uses her bare arms in the fight against Australia's mosquito-borne diseases

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I was diagnosed with PCOS – and was soon drowning in misinformation

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The current name, Teede says, 'completely misses the fact that this is a hormonal condition; that it has long-term impacts; that it is psychological, dermatological, metabolic, reproductive and, beyond fertility, it goes into many other reproductive features. And it really has an impact on quality of life.' She says it's likely that the process to give it a new name will be completed this year – her organisation has opened a survey for anyone who wants to contribute. Another myth is that women with the condition have a significant 'excess' of testosterone. And PCOS does open up some interesting questions about gender. But, says Teede, the idea that testosterone is an exclusively male hormone is false. Plus, women with PCOS do not typically have elevated levels of testosterone; it's more that our bodies are not very good at dealing with it. We have much less of the hormone than most men. After my diagnosis at the ultrasound, I had a follow-up call with a nurse practitioner, where I was told simply that I should put up with my symptoms but come back when I wanted to get pregnant; because, of course, that is the only thing that young women aspire to. When I pushed, I was offered a drug named metformin, which is used to treat insulin resistance and diabetes. It wasn't explained to me how this drug works and why it would be useful for my specific case. But, I have since learned, insulin resistance – when your body struggles to regulate your blood sugar levels – is one of the hallmark symptoms of PCOS and triggers a lot of the other issues that people with the condition face. Teede, however, points out that 'every woman has a different problem and a different life stage that's most important to them, and it's about their interpretation'. Doctors should think holistically about treatment plans for women with PCOS and listen to their concerns. My own contrasting experience, though, is much more common, says Rachel Morman, the chair of the UK PCOS charity Verity: 'After 20 years of doing this work, I'm like: 'Why is this still happening?'' She had a similar conversation with doctors after she was diagnosed in the early 00s, with the added shock of being told that she wouldn't be able to have children at all. While it is true that about 70% of women with PCOS experience fertility struggles, after intervention that number drops significantly; the vast majority of women with the condition are able to get pregnant. Morman has three children now. It's also important for women to know that a lot of the risks associated with PCOS in pregnancy (such as miscarriage, gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia) are preventable. Before they start trying for a baby, women with the condition should have a full diabetes test and get their blood pressure checked, as well as aim for a healthy diet and active lifestyle. But when doctors tell us that PCOS is something we should be concerned about only if we want to get pregnant, that is extremely frustrating, considering the wide range of effects it has on our bodies. Morman says that while there is a lot more information available now than when she was diagnosed, some treatment options have become worse: hair removal treatments used to be offered on the NHS for women diagnosed with PCOS, but not any more. As Teede acknowledges: 'One of the reasons why people go to alternative sources of information is because they're not satisfied with what they get from the health practitioners.' Misinformation about PCOS abounds, and much of it is repeated by medical professionals. To help counteract this, Teede helped to develop the extensively researched international evidence-based guidelines for PCOS in 2023, which I now regard as the holy grail of information about the condition. Her team has also created an app called AskPCOS, which can help women to find the right treatment pathways. It doesn't cover everything, but it is thorough, uses up-to-date research and doesn't make bold claims about 'curing' PCOS, as some people do on social media. 'There are a whole lot of individual practitioners, most of whom are not actually practitioners, who are there for financial gain,' says Teede. 'The biggest challenge I have is the misinformation, and then associated with that, the harm that's done by denigrating actual evidence-based strategies. Which, in the end, does a disservice for women with the condition.' She is not wholly against what she terms 'complementary therapies' (ie supplements and diets), as long as women undertake them clear-eyed and unswayed by false claims. But she does not believe people will stop looking to these types of practitioners for support until there are more trustworthy medical repositories, alongside legal liability for people who provide misinformation. Having researched PCOS over the past year (though there's still much to learn), here's what I've tried: in terms of monitoring the metabolic symptoms, I've checked my blood pressure and had screenings for diabetes and high cholesterol. My levels were fine. I've come off my birth control (some types of pill can help with the symptoms of PCOS; this one didn't) and started taking a well-researched supplement called myo-inositol, which may help with insulin resistance. But I've since come off it because it made me dizzy, a known side-effect for some people. I get periods most months, though I did so before I was put on the pill in my teens, so this may not have affected my ovulation. In terms of cosmetic treatments, I have moved away from laser hair removal, which can cause women with PCOS to experience paradoxical hypertrichosis – the regrowth of darker hairs, seemingly stimulated by the laser. Instead, I have begun electrolysis, the only way to permanently remove hairs. I'm on a break from it as the treatment has been slow and moderately painful, causing breakouts that take weeks to heal. Thankfully, the acne on my face has never been severe, but I have got topical treatment for it from an online dermatologist and benzoyl peroxide from my GP. My body acne has taken longer to get under control; I had a private online consultation with a dermatologist, which cost me £100, and have found reasonably priced skincare products that mostly work for me (shout out to Cerave). The reason I am sharing this is not so that others with PCOS can attempt to mirror my journey. Everyone is different. For example, some women are comfortable with having visible facial hair. It is not inherently shameful and I hate that it is considered to be so. Instead, I am sharing because it shows how much time and energy I have had to put into dealing with PCOS. As it stands, all women with the condition need to go on a journey of evidence-based self-education, because it is unlikely that their primary care doctors will be able to adequately direct them, and there are very few accessible specialists. We have to test out treatments and cosmetic procedures – many unregulated – for ourselves, working through trial and error. Perhaps one of the biggest learnings I've taken from this year has been around mental expenditure. While we undoubtedly have to demand better treatment from our doctors, and ask them to seek out research, those of us with chronic conditions have personal choices to make. Even in an ideal system, where I could be supported on and off medication with all the necessary tests, I would still have to make a judgment call about how much time and energy to invest in 'managing' my PCOS. It is lifelong and incurable, and, for me at least, learning to live with it has become just as important as tackling some of the issues that it causes. That is not to say people with PCOS should give up – learn to embrace their facial hair or uncomfortable acne, or the more serious difficulties related to heart health or diabetes – but it does move it in my mind from a space of hopelessness to one of pragmatism. And it has allowed me to give myself a mental break. 'You do need to have at least four periods a year, because otherwise it's a higher risk of getting cancer of the womb, for example,' says Teede. She says that people with PCOS must go for an annual checkup, including blood pressure tests. 'But you don't need to carry that around permanently,' she adds. The other brilliant news is that, in the background, things are changing. A new study shows that awareness of the syndrome has grown massively in the past eight years. In the UK, there is collaborative work happening to make sure that the syndrome becomes a research priority, including an all-party parliamentary group. 'We'll actually have proper pathways for PCOS treatment, so hopefully that should improve standard of care,' says Morman. For me, I had my foray into the land of misinformation and I battled my way out of it. I have sought out community with other women who have the condition, and I'm taking steps to mitigate its potential effect on my fertility in the future. Most of all, I feel incredibly thankful that I have been diagnosed in an era where there are women like Teede and Morman who are fighting for the recognition and evidence-based treatment of PCOS. We are not at a loss. We are at the bright beginning.

Map reveals UK areas with highest rates of erectile dysfunction
Map reveals UK areas with highest rates of erectile dysfunction

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Map reveals UK areas with highest rates of erectile dysfunction

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try in the bedroom, the erection just doesn't want to happen. It's sometimes considered a relatively taboo subject, but erectile dysfunction is actually much more common than you might think – and it doesn't need to dim your shine. More than half of men have admitted to experiencing it (58.2%), while just over a quarter (27.3%) say it's cropped up during more than half of their sexual encounters. Hey, no stigma. Now, new research has revealed the top prescription hotspots for erectile dysfunction – and it shows that men in the East Riding of Yorkshire are coming out on top. Here, 3.5% of the local population are taking sildenafil on the NHS (also known under the brand names Viagra, Aronix, Liberize and Nipatra). Northumberland came in second place at 3.3%, while Dorset was ever so slightly behind at 3.2%. Up in Lancashire, Fylde and Wyre residents rank at 3.2%, as do the people of North Yorkshire. 'NHS provision of this treatment can vary from region to region, as can the ratio of underlying disease, which probably explains some of the differences,' consultant urologist Gordon Muir, of London Bridge Hospital, told The Sun of the NHS data. Sildenafil was first discovered by scientists at Pfizer in 1989, who at the time were working to create a treatment for angina (tightness in the chest). After various clinical trials, it was patented in 1996 and approved for use in both the UK and the US in 1998. Love reading juicy stories like this? Need some tips for how to spice things up in the bedroom? Sign up to The Hook-Up and we'll slide into your inbox every week with all the latest sex and dating stories from Metro. We can't wait for you to join us! These days, sildenafil is prescribed for those experiencing either erectile dysfunction or pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs), both by the NHS and private medical providers. However, Viagra mostly isn't available on the NHS, though exceptions are sometimes made for 'special circumstances.' It's worth noting that sildenafil isn't just available on prescription, as it's also possible to pay for it at the pharmacy. You'll need to discuss your symptoms with them, and they'll then assess whether it's safe for you to take it. Thinking about alternative ways to make your erection stronger? As Dr Jeff Foster, men's health specialist and advisor to proven ED topical gel Eroxon, previously told Metro, the little blue pill isn't the only option: a few simple lifestyle swaps might be just the ticket. Regular exercise can also help, particularly workouts to strengthen the pelvic floor and prevent erectile dysfunction, which strengthen the muscles needed to get hard. Likewise, the more aerobic exercises you do – any form of physical activity that increases your heart rate and how much oxygen your body uses, like running, brisk walking or swimming – the more blood flow to your penis, and the harder the erection. Have ever had an allergic reaction to sildenafil or any other medicine Are taking medicines called nitrates for chest pain (angina) Have a serious heart or liver problem Have recently had a stroke, heart attack or a heart problem – your doctor should carefully check whether your heart can take the additional strain of having sex Have low blood pressure (hypotension) Have a rare inherited eye disease, such as retinitis pigmentosa Have sickle cell anaemia (an abnormality of red blood cells), leukaemia (cancer of blood cells) or multiple myeloma (cancer of bone marrow) Have a deformity of your penis or Peyronie's disease (curved penis) Have a stomach ulcer Have a bleeding problem like haemophilia. Improving your diet can similarly go a long way. In 2018, a study published in Andrology concluded that men aged between 18 and 40 who consumed dietary flavones (a compound in food found in fruits, vegetables, tea and coffee) experienced a positive impact on improving erectile dysfunction and soft erections. More Trending Not resting enough? Poor sleep can similarly cause ED or soft erections, either through reduced testosterone levels or just straight up tiredness. A 2023 study of male students found that those with poor sleep quality had a 59.9% higher prevalence of mild ED and a 19% prevalence of moderate ED, compared to those with good sleep quality. So, if you're not sleeping well, it's worth following the 3-2-1 rule to level up your sex life. For three hours before bed, try to avoid consuming food and alcohol, and instead stick to water or herbal tea. Peppermint brew, anyone? View More » Then, two hours before, stop working and avoid any strenuous exercise. One hour before, shut off the screens (including your phone) and dim the lights. Hello, multiple tiny lamps. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: I'm desperate to lose my virginity but have a panic attack whenever I come close MORE: How I stopped feeling insecure when my partner didn't orgasm MORE: Map reveals UK cheating hotspot where the most people have been unfaithful

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